A look at the times when we liked Bush

"No matter what you think of Bush's policies," said a friend of mine at lunch the other day, "you have to admit that he's a decent man. I mean, that's just obvious: He's a good man. Why can't people see that?"

Well, some can, some can't. Our 43d president provokes very strong emotions, to say the least. Many people flat-out hate him (and aren't shy about saying so). Some of us - fewer of us - love him. Probably very few people are lukewarm about him.

He has been anathematized to an extraordinary degree. "It's a wonder he can get out of bed in the morning," said Norman Podhoretz, the famed writer. But he does. And he tells people around him, "Don't worry about the popularity of the moment. We can leave judgments to posterity."

For now, President Bush seems virtually friendless. Many on the left regard him as a rank right-winger: against government in the domestic realm, and for war and mayhem in the foreign. Many on the right regard him as a hopeless moderate or "squish": for big spending, amnesty, and bailouts; unwilling to confront Iran, North Korea, and other menaces (no matter what he's done in Iraq and Afghanistan).

Looking back on the Bush years, I think of instances that bring out the character and (to me) likability of the man. I will share a few of those here.

At the beginning of his first term, he agonized over an extremely difficult issue: fetal stem-cell research. And he agonized over it in a thoughtful way. He faced up to the issue manfully.

And he has been manful in facing wounded soldiers, or the families of the dead (almost always away from the camera's eye). He has been forthright in accepting the consequences of his decisions. He is not a shifter of blame.

A bit of humor? At a big Washington dinner in 2002, Ozzy Osbourne, the wacky rocker, pointed to his extravagant locks and said, "Mr. President, you ought to wear your hair like mine!" The president responded, "Second term, Ozzy, second term."

At the White House, Bush was host to his Yale classmates for a reunion. One man showed up . . . as a woman. She said, "You might remember me as Peter when we left Yale." He said, "And now you've come back as yourself."

In New Orleans, Bush was talking to a man who had fled to Utah during Hurricane Katrina. The president said to him, "Were you the only black man in Salt Lake City?"

There is a president who is "comfortable in his own skin," as they say. And he has the gift of being able to talk to virtually anybody.

Another story: Bush is riding along in his limo one day, waving at people. One of these people flips him off. The president turns to the guy sitting next to him and says, "Not a fan."

And how has he handled the current transition period? About life after Jan. 20, he has said, "One thing I don't want to do is stay on the stage. The spotlight needs to shift to President-elect Obama . . . because he's the president. Therefore, I won't try to get it shifted to me. And I'll be very respectful of him during his presidency."

That is in marked contrast, I might say, to two of his own predecessors, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Truth is, some of us Bush supporters wish he had been more robust in his own defense. The Bush PR effort, to the extent there has been one, has been woeful. But some people admire the president's relative restraint. He has been pounded and pounded, and almost never has lashed back.

You know the expression "He's the bride at every wedding, and the corpse at every funeral"? That does not apply to George Bush. He has his share of braggadocio (which drives his detractors nuts); but there is also genuine humility.

On the subject of religion, he has been notably discreet. Clinton, during the impeachment drama, would show up at the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, waving a big Bible at the cameras. If Bush did something similar, cries of "Theocracy!" would be loud.

He once said of his vice president, "Cheney is not a hugger. But he loves deeply." Bush loves deeply, too - and is definitely a hugger. Indeed, he can be downright touchy-feely (another thing that bothers many conservatives).

Not that he's all sweetness and light - far from it. Anybody who has been around him for long knows he can be a real sumbitch. In a memoir, former speechwriter David Frum put it this way: In a White House of "sweet," the president himself was "tart."

And his stubbornness is famous, or infamous: This can be a boon in a leader; it can also be an impediment. To many, it seemed that he (and we) were going nowhere in Iraq. But he made the adjustments necessary to succeed, and has left the new president with a valuable gift: an upper hand.

One person who knows the extreme reactions George W. Bush provokes is the man himself. In his 2004 convention speech, he heavily hinted at this, saying, for example, "Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called 'walking.' " For many people - millions - President Bush is simply fingernails on a chalkboard, someone who can do nothing right.

You can't please everyone. But he has pleased some of us. I will miss his decency and directness and honesty. I will miss his fundamental goodness. And I daresay this would be the case if I were in his Democratic opposition.

When he was first elected, he was the end (finally) of the Clintons and Algore and I hoped he would be better and do a better job than his dad. Then 9/11 happened...

I think he's done a lot of very good things for the country and our safety and did an admirable job of rising to the challenge of being a war time President. I believe that Saddam Hussein had WMDs and was the threat all believed him to be. Thanks to Bush, he's gone. I appreciate Bush's stance on embryonic stem cell research, his tax cuts and his appointments to the Supreme Court and Federal courts. These are all positive contributions that should continue to benefit us all well past his time in office.

However, his position on illegal immigration and the growth of government and government spending under his watch have done serious damage to our Republic, the economy and to the Republican party. While I do believe he is a good man and that all Presidents make mistakes, unfortunately his mistakes won't soon be forgotten nor overcome.

“Despite vehement disagreements on a number of issues, I do believe President Bush is a decent man who tried to do what he thought was the right thing. “

No question he is a good man. He is just too liberal and confused on a lot of issues to go down as a good president.

“However, his position on illegal immigration and the growth of government and government spending under his watch have done serious damage to our Republic, the economy and to the Republican party. While I do believe he is a good man and that all Presidents make mistakes, unfortunately his mistakes won’t soon be forgotten nor overcome. “

The rise of illegals is the death of the Republican party. At least the death of us as a conservative party. Go to a North Carolina elementary school. You will see an incredible amount of hispanic children in the younger grades. Most are probably citizens by birth and in ten or twelve years they and millions more like them will be eligible to vote. Think they are going to go Republican?

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